Using the voice I have to speak up

No more guessing

Evidence is turning up that confirms my suspicions that my president is lying to me and my fellow citizens about healthcare. I don’t use that word lightly. Dishonesty is not a charge I throw around about people with whom I disagree. Yet it is a charge I will level here, and this is why…

Back in 2003, when campaigning for the US senate, Obama openly proclaimed his desire for a “single payer” healthcare system. (“Single payer” is a bit of a misnomer in that the government is the “single payer” for all citizens’ healthcare. It collects the money to do so through taxes. So in essence, everyone who pays taxes is also paying for someone else’s healthcare. Naturally, one might wonder if the individual would seek more care if he knows someone else is paying for it, or less. Here is a humorous yet poignant answer.)

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer, universal healthcare plan…That’s what I’d like to see.”

Said Obama six years ago. But as recently as 2007,Obama repeated this desire. This time, though, he said he didn’t expect the public to be ok with it, so he would have to bring it in by stealth.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s going to be potentially some transition process – I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out…”

And guess what? The healthcare bills in the house and senate say that private insurance would be illegal for anyone seeking to be insured after the bill becomes law. If someone changes jobs, leaves a job to start his or her own business, or if someone’s insurance plan “changes” for any reason, they lose it and are forced into the public “option.” Therefore, it may take a decade or more, but the single payer system the president wants will eventually happen if this bill passes.

Now, if that were where it stopped, and if the president openly proclaimed this is what the country needed, he could not be charged with being dishonest. But he hasn’t. Instead, he’s shouting the opposite.

“Here’s a guarantee that I’ve made. If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance,” said Obama at a visit to the AARP. In North Carolina, Obama repeated an oft-used line, “First of all, no one is talking about some government takeover of health care.”

“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people…you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

Now what to believe? Barack Obama has said multiple times that he wants a single payer, government run healthcare system in the United States. The bill he is pushing all but admits it will take us there, if not soon, eventually. Yet Obama continues to say we can all keep our insurance, when he knows many of us will not. The president is lying.